In winter climates there is a high demand to keep railway tracks free from snow and ice. The methods and devices used for removing the snow and ice range from manually removal to thawing and heating devices of different types.
For example U.S. Pat. No. 6,664,521 describes an inductive snow melting device. The device in U.S. Pat. No. 6,664,521 removes snow by heating a floor plate using a heating coil that is fed with a high frequency current.
Today, there is a trend toward a higher use of railways for transportation of goods and people. This has led to a higher utilization of railways. This in turn has resulted in that the maximum capacity of railroads now has been reached or almost reached in many places. The railway must hence be constantly available and there is little or no time to manually remove ice or snow from the tracks or thaw them with conventional thawing devices.
Hence there exists a need for new devices providing improved performance in snow and ice removal from railway tracks.